English 版 (精华区)
发信人: nova (晃来晃去的鱼儿), 信区: English
标 题: "Word-of-the-Day" :bauble
发信站: 紫 丁 香 (Sat Dec 11 09:05:08 1999), 转信
bauble (BAW-bul) n.
origin: from the Old French "ba(u)bel", meaning a child's
plaything, a trinket
1. A showy plaything, a trinket.
"It is true, the old adage which says that the finer things
in life are invariably the simplest. Yet no one ever thinks
to give me a shawl, not even my near-destitute servants, who
often spend as much as half their yearly wages to purchase
for me some gaudy bauble that, more often than not, goes
into the refuse heap."
--T. Herman Zweibel "Dropping a Hint"
from "The Onion"
2. A fool's scepter.
3. A trifle, a small matter.
--
' o ' \
/\ o \ o
>=)'> ' /\ '
\/ \ >=)'> ~
/ /\ \/
~ >=)'> / .
※ 来源:.紫 丁 香 bbs.hit.edu.cn.[FROM: 202.118.239.80]
发信人: nova (晃来晃去的鱼儿), 信区: English
标 题: Word-of-the-Day:withershins
发信站: 紫 丁 香 (Fri Jan 14 08:32:42 2000), 转信
withershins
origin: from the Scottish "wider-", meaning "counter", and "way".
1. In a direction opposite to the usual one; the wrong way around.
Frequently "stand" or "start withershins".
2. Moving in a direction contrary to the apparent course of the sun
(considered unlucky); anticlockwise.
"Now that same night that the corpse-bearers came home, as men sat
by the meal-fires at Frodiswater, they saw how by the panelling of
the house-wall was come a half-moon, and all might see it who were
in the house; and it went backward and withershins round about the
house, nor did it vanish away while folk sat by the fires. So
Thorod asked Thorir Wooden-leg what that might bode.
Thorir said it was the Moon of Weird, 'and the deaths of men will
follow thereafter,' says he."
--(Traditional) "The Story of the Ere-Dwellers"
Translated by William Morris and Eirikr Magnusson
--
' o ' \
/\ o \ o
>=)'> ' /\ '
\/ \ >=)'> ~
/ /\ \/
~ >=)'> / .
※ 来源:.紫 丁 香 bbs.hit.edu.cn.[FROM: 202.118.239.80]
发信人: nova (晃来晃去的鱼儿), 信区: English
标 题: Word-of-the-Day:petard
发信站: 紫 丁 香 (Thu Jan 20 20:53:21 2000), 转信
petard (pih-TARD) n.
origin: from Latin "pedere" meaning to break wind
1. A small bell-shaped bomb used to breach a gate or wall.
see illustration at: <http://www.parlez.com/petard.html>
"Without explaining my purpose, I got a large cast-iron mortar,
filled it with gunpowder, secured a block of oak to the top,
through which I pierced a hole for the insertion of the match, and
this great petard I so placed, that when it exploded, it should
blow out the side of the vessel next which the pinnace lay."
--Johann David Wyss, "The Swiss Family Robinson"
"There's letters seal'd: and my two schoolfellows,
Whom I will trust as I will adders fang'd,
They bear the mandate; they must sweep my way,
And marshal me to knavery. Let it work;
For 'tis the sport to have the engineer
Hoist with his own petard*: and't shall go hard
But I will delve one yard below their mines,
And blow them at the moon: O, 'tis most sweet,
When in one line two crafts directly meet."
--William Shakespeare, "Hamlet"
2. A loud firecracker
"When the engineer announced that their flagship product had fallen
three months behind schedule, it was as though a petard had
exploded in the conference room. The marketing director sneered
and said: 'something is rotten in the state of Denmark.'"
--ed.
--
' o ' \
/\ o \ o
>=)'> ' /\ '
\/ \ >=)'> ~
/ /\ \/
~ >=)'> / .
※ 来源:.紫 丁 香 bbs.hit.edu.cn.[FROM: 202.118.239.80]
发信人: nova (晃来晃去的鱼儿), 信区: English
标 题: Word-of-the-Day:sibilant
发信站: 紫 丁 香 (Thu Jan 20 20:54:07 2000), 转信
sibilant ("SIB-eh-lent") adj.
origin: from the Latin "sibilans", present participle of "sibilare"
meaning "to hiss" or "to whistle" (of imitative origin)
first published use: 1669
1. Of, characterized by, or producing a hissing sound like that
of (s) or (sh), as in the word "sash".
" ... in San Francisco
where the waves weep
They make a sibilant sound
a sibylline sound
Allen
they whisper
Allen "
--Lawrence Ferlinghetti, "Allen Ginsberg Dying"*
"... there is only a sharp, angry, sibilant hiss, like breath
drawn with the strength of the elements through shut teeth"
--The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson
commenting on the wind in Edinburgh (October 04, 1873)
--
' o ' \
/\ o \ o
>=)'> ' /\ '
\/ \ >=)'> ~
/ /\ \/
~ >=)'> / .
※ 来源:.紫 丁 香 bbs.hit.edu.cn.[FROM: 202.118.239.80]
Powered by KBS BBS 2.0 (http://dev.kcn.cn)
页面执行时间:2.219毫秒